


Wasted Youth

by Cptkitten



Category: Slayers (Anime & Manga)
Genre: F/M, Slice of Life, Slow Burn, a story told in bits and pieces, but i really wanted to put amelia first, i mean slow as hell, i understand that the shipping tags are sorted alphabetically, magical university au, this is made of oneshots that turned into chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-01
Updated: 2017-07-16
Packaged: 2018-10-25 17:44:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10769265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cptkitten/pseuds/Cptkitten
Summary: The Seyruun Academy of Magic is an institute of higher learning, but for Amelia, the sheltered youngest daughter of the headmaster, it is her first taste of real life. Join her as she tries to figure out friends, class work, sexuality, and most importantly, how to be herself. A story told in bits and pieces.





	1. White Lights, Strange City

"No, no, no. You don't understand what you're talking about. Black magic isn't like shamanistic magic, and it doesn't operate under the same rules."

"I don't know what I'm talking about? You won't even listen to me!"

"I don't have to. I know you're wrong. Black magic is not a negotiation, it's on a demand/contract basis..."

Zelgadis Greywords was not an impatient man, but this conversation could drive a saint to rage. He couldn't remember what he'd been thinking the day he befriended Lina Inverse but he desperately wished he could go back in time and slap himself. And possibly her.

Through the halls of the Seyruun Academy of Magic they stormed, gradually working their way from a tense discussion to an echoing argument. Lina, in her indomitable way, quickly took control of the dialogue. Zelgadis felt his ire rise as he tried (and failed) to get a word in edgewise.

"...And what you really fail to realize, because you've spent too much time with your nose up your professors ass rather than in the books we've been given access to this year-"

"??!? IF I'VE BEEN BEHIND IN MY READING-"

"But you HAVE been behind in your reading, so you don't even know what I'm talking about, so I'll try not to confuse you with the details."

A hot wave began to swell in Zelgadis's throat. Lina could be sharp at times but she was in rare form today. He felt his breath start to come faster as he started to truly lose his temper.

Their wandering feet had led them to the base of the grand staircase in the main hall; it was an enormous marble affair that the school was very proud of. This unfortunately meant they were now surrounded by other students on their way out of class for the afternoon. Lina's voice could now carry and echo in the large space and Zelgadis felt his face start to flush in embarrassment. Another wave of students coming out of their lecture halls happened to coincide with a particularly rude jab at his last essay. He could feel the weight of every set of eyes on them as she continued in her tirade. The hot wave in his throat began to crest.

Meanwhile, at the top of the stairs, the Seyruun Academy's new darling was just making her way through the growing throng. Amelia Wil Tesla Saillune- daughter of the headmaster and possibly as sugary sweet as a person can be without making others ill- greeted her fellow students with a radiant smile and kind words. She noticed that the attention of the crowd was focused at the base of the stairs and considered it for a moment.

"Don't worry about them." The friendly face of Gourry Gabriev, a senior student, appeared over her shoulder. "They do this a few times a semester. If they don't shout it out, they might blow up the school."

Amelia frowned, but nodded. "Do you think that there's anything I can do to help?"

Gourry shrugged. "Try not to get in the way, I guess." He shouldered his bag and made his way with the crowd down the stairs, giving the shouting pair a wide berth. Amelia thought hard on a way to deescalate the situation. Fighting wasn't something she liked to ignore. She decided to go down there and offer her services in resolving the situation.

She was just about to head down to meet them when the bustling crowd behind her gave Amelia an abrupt shove off the top stair. The good news was that she managed to hit a few steps on her feet, keeping herself upright. The bad news was that her momentum was taking her directly into the fight she wanted to stop.

Zelgadis couldn't stop his growing rage anymore. Lina was getting too personal with her jabs and he just couldn't take it anymore. She was STILL drilling into him when he finally broke.

"LISTEN to me, you THIRD RATE LEI MAGNUS WANNABE." That did double duty by shutting her up and putting an affronted look on her face. "Black magic and Shamanistic magic are similar in that you are asking another entity for the use of its power." Because he really wanted to make this as insulting as she had, he jabbed a finger toward her while he spoke. "Just because Black magic is dealing with dark powers that are more demanding and less easy to control doesn't make it completely different from calling upon the spirits of the earth and the astral plane. The powers that they control and the nature of the transaction is different, but you are still borrowing from something else." She was turning a pleasing shade of red now, but she also seemed distracted by something on the stairs. "And I'll have you know..."

In the middle of his sentence, his peripheral vision caught something coming down the stairs very fast. Not wanting to give up on this line while he still had Lina silent and mad, he reached out with both arms and caught what was falling and steamed on ahead.

"... if you had actually paid attention to the basic rules of summoning instead of blowing through them because you were just TOO SMART to be caught dead reading introductory texts you would understand that Black and Shamanistic magic is the same plea to different beings, and not a completely different kind of magic!"

Amelia had nothing to say. She was sure that she was going to eat dirt on the floor in between them, but this man had reached out and caught her with ease, and it hadn't even broken his stride. She wiggled a bit in his grasp, but instead of putting her down, he simply shifted her in his arms to make her more comfortable. She glanced across at Lina, the only side of this conversation she knew.

And boy howdy did she look pissed. Her face was almost as red as her hair, and she was caught between being enraged at what was being said and being really impressed with that move. Lina opened her mouth to defend herself, but turnabout was fair play, and Zelgadis didn't feel like letting up any time soon.

"So I'm sorry if you're so busy with texts that are so far ahead of the current course material that you can't be bothered to engage with the class, but if you're going to throw around broad assumptions about basic material, I'd appreciate if you'd crack a copy of "Ellementarie Majycks!"

Silence rang through the hall, and the surrounding students stood still. Such an insult thrown at Lina Inverse, R.A. spooker and enemy to all who live, should surely mean death to the offending party. Her narrowed eyes and sharp mouth twitched with barely restrained fury. Amelia, still nestled in Zelgadis's arms, gently put her arms around his neck because by god if she was going to be held aloft like a rescued maiden, she was going to play the part, and glanced worriedly between the two.

Lina's lips curled back in a snarl. "That doesn't change the fact that Godzilla would absolutely be an entity of Black magic."

The tense atmosphere immediately dropped and the students around them lost interest and began moving again. Zelgadis dropped his head back and groaned. "My god, Lina! He's a spirit of the earth corrupted by human waste! Of course he would be a Shamanistic creature!" He finally bent down and let Amelia's legs out of his grasp. He didn't even look at her as she steadied herself next to him. "You're just angry that Godzilla is the coolest monster you've ever heard of and he wouldn't be related to your field. Honestly, you're being childish."

Amelia, on her feet again, watched them wander away from her, still arguing. They continued on out of her sight, and she had no reason to doubt that they would continue forever if given the chance. Gourry approached her again from where he had been watching the show. "See? I told you, nothing to worry about. They'll tire themselves out by tomorrow." He clapped a friendly hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry about them, okay?"

Gourry left the hall, but Amelia lingered. Her hand grazed over the spot on her shoulder where Zelgadis had held her up, eyes distant. A moment passed before she sighed into the now empty space.

"But Godzilla has the laser breath of a Golden dragon, doesn't that make him a creature of Holy magic?"


	2. It's No Surprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amelia talks to Phil about moving into the dormitories, and Phil catches the feels.

"Daddy?"

Philionel looked up from his desk. He must not have heard her knock. His youngest child, Amelia, stood at his office door with a nervous look on her face. He rubbed some of the ache out of his eyes. Paperwork was a terrible beast. "Yes, daughter?"

Amelia came into the room and immediately went in for a hug. This was not exactly out of the ordinary, but Phil could sense that this was not why she had come. They shared a brief but tight hug before she pulled away and leaned on his desk.

"Daddy, I want to move into the dormitories."

He knew this would be coming soon. It had happened with her sister and it wasn't much of a surprise now. Phil gently pushed down the swell of panic in his heart. "You've only been attending a few weeks, darling. Are you sure about this?"

The sudden confidence in her eyes told him all he needed to know, but he let her talk it out. "Yes. I am." She started ticking reasons off on her fingers. "It's part of the student experience to live with the rest of the student body, and I feel that I'd be missing out if I didn't get to as well. I'd be directly on campus, closer to classes and the library, and when I get to be in group projects, it'll be that much easier to meet up. I'd get to experience living away from home, a crucial part of growing up. Also, as luck would have it, Gracia's old room is still open! I could slip right in behind her, and her old roommate wouldn't be weird about living with the headmaster's daughter, because she already did for four years!"

"Almost four years," her father grumbled. He'd wished it had been a full four years, but his eldest had decided to drop out before finishing her final year. Still, he couldn't exactly complain, knowing that his rowdy child had found her calling. He smoothed his mustache as an excuse to cover the conflicted turn of his mouth. "You've obviously put quite a bit of thought into this, daughter. Are you sure you're ready to strike out on your own? You're always welcome to stay here at home while you study!"

Amelia glanced past him out his office window, looking briefly at their sprawling family home. "I know, daddy. But I've lived here my whole life, and while I'm sure I'll come back to settle down, I'd like to get out for a while and have a few adventures." She looked back at him and grinned. "Reasonable adventures, I promise."

Philionel felt a pang in his heart looking at his sweet daughter. She had grown to take after him, but he could still see her mother in her eyes when she smiled like that. Her older sister had been much more forceful when she told him that she was moving out. Both of them had now come to him at the same age with the same announcement. He supposed that while very different, his children had certainly been cut from the same cloth.

He wondered what they would do with their lives, and if they would continue to mirror each other.

Phil gently reached out and gathered his daughter in his arms and hugged her again, wrapping his big arms tightly around her, trying to communicate in this motion how very much he loved her. "I doubt all of them will be reasonable, but I'd appreciate it if you came home for dinner once a week and told me about them."

"Oh, daddy!" Amelia wriggled her arms free to wrap around his neck and squeeze back. "Of course I will! I couldn't leave you all alone in this big old house!" She nuzzled into her father and sighed.

"Well. Not that you'll be completely alone. Uncle Christopher still lives here."

Phil sighed heavily and gave his daughter another squeeze. "Just between you and me, you make much more interesting company than my brother."

Amelia giggled. "Daddy! That's mean!"

"It's true, is what it is. Do you know how many times I've caught him rewatching Friends?" He rested his chin on her head. "Oh, my daughter is all grown up and leaving my to discuss sitcoms with my brother." A beat passed. "Would you like help packing, Amelia?"

"Umm." She went still in his arms. "About that."

Phil steeled himself for the worst, and received it. "You see, daddy, I've actually already packed and filed the paperwork, so I'm ready to move in now. I was banking on you agreeing. Would you like to give me a ride?"

He guffawed loudly. "Knew your old man didn't stand a chance, did you? That's my daughter!"

Amelia protested good naturedly as she took her father by the hand and led him to where her bags were waiting. Phil breathed deeply and let his fear and reluctance leave him. She was really just like her sister. At least he was much better prepared now. The wounds on his heart left by his wife's death and Gracia's many rebellions were healing over, and while it hurt to help Amelia pack her life into a car and prepare to watch her go, it was best to let her go and live her young life than try to fight it.

He wondered when he'd next be pulled by the hand by his little girl and hoped it wouldn't be too long.

**Author's Note:**

> I was not pleased when I realized that this wasn't going to be a oneshot, but completely separate ideas kept mingling until I couldn't deny it anymore. I'm sorry. I'll try to keep some semblance of order here. I'm sorry.


End file.
